In recent years, migrant workers, defined as people who move from Chinese rural areas to cities in other parts of the country to find work, have experienced slowed wage growth. An important question that has emerged is whether depressive symptoms have a significant relationship with migrant worker wages. This paper uses a nationally representative panel dataset to examine the overall association of depressive symptoms and migrant worker wages in China and explores the indirect mechanisms through which these impacts occur. Using the Coarsened Exact Matching method, our results show that depressive symptoms have a significant direct negative relationship with migrant worker wages, and that this relationship is consistent. Furthermore, we also find that depressive symptoms can reduce migrant worker wages indirectly by increasing the frequency of job conversion or by shortening work duration. © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Coarsened Exact Matching method Depressive symptoms Migrant workers Wage Working stability

China rural area least square analysis depression educational status income distribution economics minority group mental health human Asian continental ancestry group work controlled study panel data salary Salaries and Fringe Benefits salary and fringe benefit marriage migrant worker Humans psychology male wage Cities mathematical analysis Article working time data set city adult gender migration age Models, Statistical Case-Control Studies statistical model Transients and Migrants case control study coarsened exact matching ordinary least square regression analysis job conversion immigrant population